Trump leans on SCOTUS shadow docket more than Biden, Obama and Bush combined (axios.com)

President Trump's administration on Monday filed its 41st application to the Supreme Court's shadow docket , a milestone that matches the total number of petitions it filed during his entire first term — in less than two years. Why it matters: The record highlights how often the president has turned to SCOTUS to secure authority to temporarily revive policies blocked by lower courts. What they're saying: "We have never seen an administration run to the Supreme Court with the speed and numbers that we're seeing out of the Trump administration this term," Stephen Spaulding, managing director of the Kohlberg Center at the Brennan Center for Justice, tells Axios. "Keep in mind that the shadow docket, the emergency docket, is used and should be used for actual emergencies," he says. "The administration continues to claim that they're going to face irreparable harm, and that this is an appropriate emergency for the Supreme Court to review, which we think, calls into question how the court's using the shadow docket in the first place." The other side: "President Trump has faced a historically unprecedented number of injunctions by activist lower court judges," Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, emailed Axios. "The reality is, with well over 20 Supreme Court victories the Administration's policies have been consistently upheld as lawful. President Trump will not stop implementing the America First agenda that he was elected on." A Justice Department spokesperson also told Axios the administration has had a "strong record before the Supreme Court on emergency applications, which reflects how often lower courts have blocked lawful policies without justification." "Without timely relief, any administration's priorities could be tied up in litigation for years. Asking the Supreme Court to step in when it is warranted does not undermine the judicial system. It is how the system is designed to work." How it works: The emergency, or shadow, docket lets parties seek expedited Supreme Court intervention before a case completes the ordinary appeals process. The court can, for example, pause a lower court's injunction and allow a policy to take effect while litigation continues. The orders are often issued unsigned and without explanation, complicating how lower court judges apply the orders to future cases. By the numbers: The second Trump administration filed its 41st emergency application Monday. The Biden administration made 19 requests over four years. The Obama and George W. Bush administrations made eight requests over their combined 16 years in office. Obama made three, and Bush made five. Driving the news: The 41st application asked the court to allow the Bureau of Prisons to reimplement a policy cutting off some gender-affirming care for incarcerated transgender people. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, ordered the administration last month to continue providing care to people with gender dysphoria while a challenge to one of Tru